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The June issue of The Atlantic is using the authority of UCSD social psychology professor Christopher Bryan to prop up the long tarnished reputation of B. F. Skinner, author of the novel Walden Two, first published in 1948, and Beyond Freedom and Dignity, which appeared in 1971. To overcome common human problems, Skinner’s work advocated the use of “operant conditioning,” now more commonly called “behavior modification.”
In the lead article entitled “The Perfected Self,” David H. Freedman quotes Bryan as saying, “There was a notion that there’s something icky about psychological techniques intended to manipulate people.” On its front cover, the magazine appears to rename “icky” while transporting its basic meaning into the come-on to readers, “The End of Temptation: How the creepy science of behavior modification is reshaping our desires.”
Much of the article concerns how new smart phone apps are becoming available for losing weight and other self help efforts. Freedman eventually confronts, if only briefly, the Big Brother question: “An individual choosing to alter his environment to affect his behavior is one thing; a corporation or a government altering an individual’s environment to affect his behavior is another.”
For his part, UCSD’s Bryan is high on large-scale manipulations of people by do-gooder projects. In research, he writes on his university web page, “I have looked at how framing manipulations that invoke the self can get people to vote in elections [among other things].”
But how about helping me improve my abilities to deflect mass political manipulations that are already out there? So armed, I might not only be more inclined to go to the polls but be better able to vote my own mind when I get there. Bryan did not answer my voicemail and email messages asking to talk about such topics.
The June issue of The Atlantic is using the authority of UCSD social psychology professor Christopher Bryan to prop up the long tarnished reputation of B. F. Skinner, author of the novel Walden Two, first published in 1948, and Beyond Freedom and Dignity, which appeared in 1971. To overcome common human problems, Skinner’s work advocated the use of “operant conditioning,” now more commonly called “behavior modification.”
In the lead article entitled “The Perfected Self,” David H. Freedman quotes Bryan as saying, “There was a notion that there’s something icky about psychological techniques intended to manipulate people.” On its front cover, the magazine appears to rename “icky” while transporting its basic meaning into the come-on to readers, “The End of Temptation: How the creepy science of behavior modification is reshaping our desires.”
Much of the article concerns how new smart phone apps are becoming available for losing weight and other self help efforts. Freedman eventually confronts, if only briefly, the Big Brother question: “An individual choosing to alter his environment to affect his behavior is one thing; a corporation or a government altering an individual’s environment to affect his behavior is another.”
For his part, UCSD’s Bryan is high on large-scale manipulations of people by do-gooder projects. In research, he writes on his university web page, “I have looked at how framing manipulations that invoke the self can get people to vote in elections [among other things].”
But how about helping me improve my abilities to deflect mass political manipulations that are already out there? So armed, I might not only be more inclined to go to the polls but be better able to vote my own mind when I get there. Bryan did not answer my voicemail and email messages asking to talk about such topics.